Jd Ojule

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Its Promises for the Sexual and Reproductive Health of Girls and Women in Africa

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals take into account the economic, social and environmental challenges of our world. In relation to the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of girls and women, the Sustainable Development Goals provide a platform for the enhancement of the SRHR of adolescents and women, especially in Africa. The promises of SDGs are to eliminate gender disparities in the education sector and to ensure equal access at all levels particularly for the vulnerable girls and women in Africa. The SDGs promise to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages through universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes. Predictably, few years down the line, most African countries have not demonstrated sufficient commitment and political will towards the realisation of these noble goals. The reproductive and sexual health of concerned girls and women in Africa that have been deliberately relegated for several decades can no doubt be redeemed by the SDGs. We advocate to Governments, non-governmental organisations and stakeholders in Africa to work towards the realisation of the SDGs and for more sensitization to enable African women live a happy and fulfilled life devoid of discrimination, sexual abuses or exploitations, injustice as well as unequal access to economic, political and reproductive health services.

Malaria chemoprophylaxis during pregnancy: a survey of current practice amongst general practitioners in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Background: Malaria is a common health problem especially among the pregnant women in endemic countries such as Nigeria. Sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine (SP) has been recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for malaria chemoprophylaxis in pregnancy and has been incorporated into our national malaria control programme. General medical practitioners provide prenatal care for significant proportion of our women in pregnancy. Aim: To examine the current knowledge and practice of malaria chemoprophylaxis during pregnancy among general medical practitioners in Port Harcourt, southern Nigeria. Methods: It was a questionnaire based study of 90 general medical practitioners in Port Harcourt, southern Nigeria which sought for their socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge and practice of malaria chemoprophylaxis during pregnancy. The data were entered into a personal computer and analysed using SPSS for windows version 10.0 and presented as frequency tables and percentages. Results: Of the 90 questionnaires, 59 duly completed forms were retrieved, giving a response rate of 65.60%. The age range of the respondents was 21-60 years with 31-40 years as the most common range. Only 33(55.93%) respondents knew the current malaria chemoprophylactic agent in pregnancy as recommended by WHO. Almost all (98.30%) respondents administered malaria chemoprophylaxis routinely to their antenatal women but only 44.06% administered correctly SP as recommended. Conclusion: The knowledge and practice of the WHO recommended malaria chemoprophylaxis in pregnancy among general medical practitioners is below average. Training and re-training of these primary care physicians on the use of sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine will tremendously improve their knowledge and practice of this WHO recommended chemoprophylactic agent in pregnancy which will in turn reduce malaria - related perinatal and maternal complications.

Rupture of a primigravid uterus following a domestic accident

Normal 0 false false false Background: Uterine rupture is an infrequent but life threatening obstetric emergency especially in a developing country such as Nigeria. Often encountered is the rupture of previously scarred uterus especially in multiparous women, but the traumatic rupture of an unscarred primigravid uterus as presented here is a relatively rare event. Aim: To report a case of rupture of an unscarred uterus in a primigravidae due to blunt abdominal trauma. Design: Case report. Case report: We present a primigravidae with no previous uterine surgery who had uterine rupture following trauma from a fall at 38 weeks of pregnancy. She was resuscitated with intravenous fluids and blood transfusion. The uterine rupture was repaired without tubal ligation. Conclusion: Rupture of an unscarred uterus in a primigravidae although uncommon can occur. Blunt trauma to the abdomen from a fall can be an aetiological factor. Keywords: Domestic accident, Uterine rupture, Trauma, Primigravida

Inevitable Caesarean Myomectomy: A Case Report.

The traditional teaching in obstetrics is to avoid myomectomy during caesarean section because of increased risk of hemorrhage. When a lower segment uterine fibroid is present, a classical incision is prescribed.We present a 32year old booked nullipara who had an emergency classical caesarean section for huge lower segment fibroids, transverse lie and premature rupture of fetal membranes at 37 weeks of gestation and was delivered of a live male baby who weighed 3.6kg with good APGAR scores. The intramural fibroids, enchroaching into the uterine incision, made closure impossible, necessitating a caesarean myomectomy under a high dose oxytocin infusion before successfully closing the incision. She did remarkably well and was discharged home on the 7th post-operative day. Caesarean myomectomy can safely be done in situations where fibroid nodules enchroach on the incision line or in cases of pedunculated subserous fibroids, using good surgical technique and high dose oxytocin infusion. Key words : uterine fibroids, classical incision, inevitable, caesarean myomectomy.